Title: Static Electricity

Problem Scenario

This idea popped in my head.

Broad Question

How does static electricity work?

Specific Question

Does the color of hair affect the amount of static electricity the hair can carry?

Hypothesis

I think that the color of hair does affect the amount of static electricity it can carry. Blonde hair will have the most static electricity, then brown, red and then died.

Graph of Hypothesis

Variables

Independent Variable: Color of hair

Dependent Variable: Static electricity

Variables That Need To Be Controlled:

Hair Length
Time Since Washing
Brushed

Vocabulary List That Needs Explanation

Static Electricity:

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General Plan

I am going to get a balloon and rub it on someone's head making sure they are against the wall i will time how long the balloon stays on the wall. First I will test someone with blonde hair three times, someone with died hair,someone with red hair, and a someone with brown hair. The balloon will most likely stick to the wall because of the static electricity, and for each time someone gets tested i will time how long the balloon stays on the wall.

Potential Problems And Solutions

might not be enough static electricity in someone's hair, the amount of time since showering, and depending on how much hair is brushed or knotted. Some solutions would be not use that person, use people who showered around the same time, and make sure everyone has brushed hair or un-brushed hair.
Safety Or Environmental Concerns
I have to dispose the balloons correctly.

Experimental Design

What is your experimental unit?

How much static electricity is in each color of hair.

Number Of Trials:

3 times each person.

Number Of Subjects In Each trial:

Four colors of hair, blonde, brown, died and red, and two people each color, and run 3 times each person.

Number of Observations:

One, each person each time.

When data will be collected

i will get some data on 2/14

Where will data be collected?:

It will be collected in the hallway by Mr. Biche's room.

Resources and Budget Table

Item	Number needed	Where I will get this	Cost
Lightly Colored Ballons	12	Home	0.00
Timer	1	Mr. Biche	0.00

Detailed Procedure

I am going to get 8 different people with different colored hair blonde, brown, red, and died hair and test it against a wall. I am going to test each color of hair three times, two people each color of hair. When i test i am going to rub a balloon on the person's hair, and once i have made the hair stand and the balloon will stick to the wall. I will time how long the balloon stays on the wall and when it begins to fall down I will stop the timer. I will do this 3 times to each person with different colored hair.

Diagram

Photo List

Picutres of each balloon on the wall, each person's hair sticking up

Time Line

procedure, timeline, photo list done 2/1
begin experiments no later than 2/4
experiments done 3/1
analysis 3/7
discussion/back round 3/15
wiki complete 3/15
posters complete 3/22
KMS fair 3/29

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Data Table

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Blonde Hair	Died Hair	Brown Hair	Red Hair
10.3	9.6	32.8	36.6

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Data Analysis

All Raw Data

Hair Colors	Names	Trial 1 (secs)	Trial 2 (secs)	Trial 3 (secs)
Blonde Hair	Kelsey	2	2	3
Blonde Hair	Caleb	45	7	3
Died Hair	Gabby S.	3	2	3
Died Hair	Gabby L.	45	2	3
Brown Hair	Emily	45	45	15
Brown Hair	Griffin	45	45	2
Red Hair	Oliver	45	45	20

Graphs

The graph of my results. Red hair has the most static electricity, then brown, blonde then died.

Photos

Results

I observed that red hair has the most amount of static electricity with an average of 36.6 seconds. Brown hair has the second most amount of static electricity with an average of 32.8 seconds, then blonde with 10.3 seconds, then died hair with 9.6 seconds.

Conclusion

I hypothesized that blonde hair hair had the most static electricity, then brown had the second amount of static electricity, then red hair, then died hair. I am going to reject my hypothesis because red hair contains the most static electricity. Brown hair has the second most amount of static electricity, then blonde hair then died.

Discussion

Some patterns that I noticed in my experiment was most of the time, the balloon stayed on the wall until 45 seconds the maximum amount of seconds there could be in me experiment. Everyone in my experiment except for one person with died hair had 45 seconds at least once.
The relationship between my independent and dependent variable were pretty strong. My independent variable was the color of hair and my dependent variable was static electricity. I think my variables worked pretty well together because there was nothing that went wrong during my experiment that I should have noticed.
I was able to answer my question. My question was: does the color of hair affect how much static electricity the hair can carry?. The answer to my question after doing this experiment is yes. The color of hair that contains the most static electricity is red hair.
My experiment did not have any problems or concerns. My data also did not have any problems or have anything I should be concerned about.
My experiment could have been impoved because I could have measured other things in my experiment and had more variables that could have been controlled. The other control variables I could have added was hair thickness and thinness. Also, if the person I was testing's head was not on the wall it effected my data and I had to re-test that person. Another variable I could have controlled was the different clothing the person was wearing, like if someone was wearing a fleece sweatshirt, I think that the sweatshirt could contain more static electricity than someone in just a plain tee.
Benefit to Community and/or Science
This experiment could help the community because I think it is good to know if your hair has a lot of static electricity depending on it's color. It might be able to help understand how much static electricity your hair contains, and how cool static electricity can actually be.
I think hair dressers or people that work with other people's hair should know this data. If the hair dresser had on something that contained a lot of static electricity then it could mess up the hair cut.
My results benefit the society of science because I think it is different than any other science fair project, and it is interesting to see how static electricity works. Also, it effects the society of science because you could make a bigger project out of this small project by having more control variables.

Background Research

References

Abstract

In my experiment, I found out what color of hair contains the most static electricity. What I did in my experiment was I got two people with brown, blonde, red and died hair. I rubbed a balloon on each person's head causing the hair to have static electricity. When I was doing my experiment the hair stood up against the wall and I timed how long, with a maximum of 45 seconds. For my results, I found out that red hair contained the most static electricity, then brown hair, blonde hair, then died hair. My experiment did not take very long but it was very fun to do and I learned a lot.